James R. Rummel

I am a self defense instructor who lives in Columbus, Ohio.

Anyone Study Under This Guy?

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Paul Ricoeur died last week.

Not familiar with the name? He�s a French philosopher who immigrated to the United States after being subjected to criticism and abuse in his native country. He taught at the University of Chicago for more than 20 years, and it appears that the change of venue was a positive decision.

�But Paul Ric�ur did not only find in the United States a refuge to work in peace and enjoy the respect he deserved. His American semesters also proved fertile. In this philosophical new world where not only the interlocutors but also the style of thought itself were different, and where openness to discussion and the development of sound arguments were more important than the tone of oratory or ideological denunciation, Ric�ur discovered a climate that matched his own particular way of thinking.�

Did anyone ever get the chance to meet him?

Inflated Importance

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Amnesty International’s annual report for 2005 wasn’t very flattering to the United States. The author was particularly critical of the way we detain suspected terrorists and enemy combatants at Guantánamo Bay, calling it “the gulag of our times.”

The White House was quick to reply. Spokesman Scott McClellan dismissed the charges out of hand, stating that the US leads the world in promoting human rights.

The AI report is pretty much same-old, same-old to the few of us who actually pay attention to such things. They’ve been increasingly critical of the US in recent years, becoming more shrill every year since the fall of the Soviet Union. Near as I can tell this is the first time that they’ve actually equated the US with the USSR, the most murderous regime in world history so far as sheer numbers of innocent victims are concerned.

(In the spirit of full disclosure, I’m not the R.J. Rummel featured in the last link. We’re not related, and I’ve never even met the guy. He knows his stuff, though.)

There seems to be three reasons why Amnesty International is doing this.

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Look to the Center of Gravity

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Bear with me on this one for a moment. I have to go over some backstory.

Although they had been talking about it for a decade, the Europeans formally proposed the formation of a Rapid Reaction Force (RRF) back in 1999. It was supposed to be 60,000 soldiers with the gear and the means to move to any spot on the planet and make it their own for a year. Airlift and sealift, artillery and air support. Everything that a modern army needed to project force was to be included in the inventory. The idea was to put the lid on potential flash points and save lives.

Didn’t happen. So Rumsfeld went to the annual NATO summit in 2002 and suggested that maybe the 60K figure was too ambitious. 20K was probably more like it. Everyone involved agreed on this, and the plan to make this a reality was known as The Prague Capabilities Commitment of 2002, named after the city where the summit was held. The name of this command was going to be the NATO Response Force (NRF).

The Congressional Research Service recently submitted a report that examines the progress of this plan. As you might expect when dealing with European military capabilities, things aren’t nearly as advanced as one might reasonably expect.

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Passing

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Eddie Albert has died.

He was best known for his role in the TV comedy Green Acres, but he was also a war hero. He piloted a Higgins Boat landing craft at Tarawa, and he was awarded the Bronze Star for heroism when he braved heavy enemy fire in order to take wounded Marines off of the beach. Albert had to advance through shelling so intense that he was rendered partially deaf for the rest of his life.

Most people will remember him for his acting talent. His valor should not be forgotten.